Stripe Valued at $159B in Share Buyback Amid PayPal Talks

Stripe, the San Francisco-based fintech company, announced on Tuesday a tender offer to repurchase shares from current and former employees, valuing the firm at $159 billion. The move comes amid reports that Stripe is exploring a potential acquisition of PayPal or portions of the digital payments leader, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The tender offer represents a more than 70 percent increase from Stripe's valuation of $91.5 billion in a similar transaction a year earlier. Funding for the buyback will primarily come from existing investors, including Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, and Andreessen Horowitz, with Stripe contributing some of its own cash reserves. The company processed $1.9 trillion in payment volume last year, a 34 percent rise from the previous year, and powers financial services for over 5 million businesses worldwide.

Stripe's founders, John and Patrick Collison, highlighted the firm's robust profitability in their annual letter, noting that it enables continued investment in product development and acquisitions. "Stripe remained robustly profitable, allowing us to continue investing heavily in product development as well as...